July 14, 2003

With this green jersey on my shoulders, the Tour has been a dream so far. We’ve now worn all the jerseys at Fdjeux.com: yellow with Brad McGee, polka dot with Christophe Mengin and I wore white before the team time trial. There has only been one day, stage 6, that not any of us was wearing a specific jersey.

VeloNews tech editor Andrew Juskaitis starts off with a fairly ho-hum report on the new Trek frames Lance Armstrong is riding, and that he's the only one riding the 2004 Shimano Dura-Ace componentry. Way down toward the end he slips in some really useful stuff, his Tour de France driving tips:

Driving Tip #1
While driving down the L'Alpe d'Huez this morning our European correspondent Andrew Hood learned the hard way of the concept of downshifting to prevent brake overheating. By the time Hood captained our Volkswagen down to the bottom of the climb, our front brakes had thoroughly overheated producing voluminous plumes of smoke. Even the Saeco and Crdit Agricole team cars which passed us took notice and thoughtfully informed us that our brakes were nearly on fire.

Driving Tip #2
With my first taste of "maximum attack" Tour driving today, I learned you can never go too fast through a round-about directly into a pitch black tunnel while passing a motorized float shaped like a giant inflatable rubber ducky.

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson found himself in the middle of it all today:

When we pulled on, there were no cars, no motos, no anything but fans peering down the road past our car.

I told the other photographer something was seriously wrong, and we had to get down the road as fast as possible. We floored it and flew aroung the next corner, and right into the back of the Virenque break, 9 minutes down the road from the main peloton. This is expressly forbidden, as anyone would know, and we knew we were in deep trouble. I told the other photographer we had to find a way off. No sooner than the words were out of my mouth, than a red organization car, the one car we did not want to see in this situation, was in the rear view mirror. We immediately pulled off, and they eased up next to us. Expecting a severe warning or tongue-lashing from the security people, I stopped breathing when the rear window rolled down and Msr. LeBlanc looked at us. OH MY GOD. I blurted out a lame apology. He said, "Come see me tonight in the Permanance." Read more...

Luc LeBlanc is the overall race director, and not a man you want to anger if you value your press credentials.

Jorg Jaksche (ONCE-Eroski) ... Jaksche was the virtual Yellow on the road today, and rode brilliantly to force the Posties to chase. He was very strong on the climbs, attacking repeatedly to whittle the group of 14 down to two near the end. This was a perfect team tactic, as this would help tire out the Posties and set up Beloki. Unfortunately, his team leader's crash brought a sad and sudden end to what was really a great day for the ONCEs up to that point.

Jaksche earned the most combative rider award for the day's work.

Among the Gazers:

David Millar (Cofidis). He launched an attack on the penultimate climb, rode solo for awhile, and then blew sky high on the final climb. This ill-timed attack ended with Millar in 28th at 1' 47" today, losing valuable time in his quest for a top ten on GC. He's still in 19th on GC at 7' 15", but Millar has to be more careful with his attacks down the road.

I have to agree here; Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett always want to think the best of the Anglo-Aussie-American contingent, and were applauding Millar's break, but the time gaps Sherwen quoted were much better than any that appeared on the Tour site.

Eventually, soon after Sherwen declared that Millar was closing on the break, less than a minute ahead of him, he was overtaken by the field.

"I was scared like never before," said Armstrong, who took the leader's yellow jersey on Sunday. "It was a real panic. In a moment like that, it's a survival instinct."

Beloki hit the road hard when he slipped off his bike speeding around a bend on a rapid downhill descent with less than 5 miles to go. Armstrong was right behind and just missed plowing into the Spaniard.

Beloki, the 2002 runner-up behind Armstrong, was conscious when taken to a hospital in an ambulance. Tour doctors said he fractured his right leg.

Also:

With 11 stages left in the three-week Tour, Vinokourov is 21 seconds behind. Armstrong is trying to match the record of five straight Tour wins set by Spain's Miguel Indurain.

"I've never been so close to the yellow jersey and I've always dreamed of it ... Why not realize this dream?" Vinokourov said. "I'm motivated and I'll do my best."

Meanwhile, four-time winner Lance Armstrong received a huge boost to his chances of securing a fifth successive Tour de France as closest rival Joseba Beloki crashed on the descent from the final climb.

The Spaniard was just 40 seconds adrift of the American in the overall standings and was leading Armstrong down the descent in the ninth stage when he braked sharply and came crashing down onto the road.

While he lay prone being tended to by ONCE team-mates, 31-year-old Armstrong avoided him and took a shortcut down the grassy part of the descent to rejoin the race.

Stage 9 | Vinokourov takes stage, moves into 2nd

The big news today will be that Joseba Beloki, who was looking like a sure podium finish, and a serious threat to Armstrong's chances, crashed out of the race near the finish today.

It's a shame, and will distract from another classic stage today, as ONCE put Jorg Jaksche in a long breakaway that threatened the yellow jersey, forcing US Postal to work all day long to bring it back.

Alexandre Vinokourov, second yesterday, pursued a similar strategy as yesterday, gapping Armstrong's group, then riding away from the survivors of the early break, winning the stage by 36 seconds.

Yahoo! Sport talks to Australian Michael Rogers, 23, who has been placed as high as 3rd in the young riders' battle for the white jersey. On Sunday, Rogers had to suspend his efforts in that competition to pace QuickStep team leader Richard Virenque up l'Alpe d'Huez:

[T]he Canberra-born rider keeping one eye on the white jersey for the race's best under-25 rider while trying to help Virenque on his quest at high altitude.

And although his unselfish efforts on Sunday dented his overall chances, Rogers is confident he can make up for lost time.

"The Tour is far from over and as far as the young riders' competition is concerned there's still a few interesting stages left," said Rogers, who finished the eighth stage along with Virenque at 9:29 adrift of Mayo.

Tour Today: Bourg d'Oisans - Gap

A stage with interesting geography: a first category climb, an haute categorie climb, a long descent into a valley, a 2nd category climb and a 3rd category climb. The hard climbs are front-loaded, so it will be interesting to see whether anyone tries or succeeds to generate a break on the early, harder climbs, with the risk that the peloton (or much of it) can build a pursuit during the 60 or so kms down from the Col d'Izoard. It seems more likely that a rider looking to move up in the King of the Mountains competition might try to get away over the big two climbs.